I have been observing the actions of the Kyogle Council in the process of proposing the construction of the Kyogle Memorial Recreation Centre.
I am especially interested in how the Council changed from the community preferred options they had been working on for six years, up until they decided to change to building the Rec Centre, on a different site, in December 2024.
Despite requests for the reasoning behind this decision, and why the council didn’t seek any meaningful community consultation on the design changes, no answers have been forthcoming from either the council or councillors. It’s like they have all been sworn to secrecy.
I feel the council have treated concerned residents and Kyogle Together with contempt and arrogance by not addressing the concerns raised.
At the end of the day, our community and the council have gotten a fully funded youth service at very little cost to the ratepayer for the past 30 years.
One would expect that the council would treat the providers of such a service with some respect and actually involve them in the decision making process, along with the whole community, especially when you’re demolishing our historic youth centre.
At the November council meeting, the mayor highlighted that the council could only consider the DA on planning grounds.
Read DA process has left community behind, youth worker says as councillors vote on rec centre
While saying this, she also stressed that they wouldn’t want to endanger the grant provided for the project, not a planning reason for approval, while ignoring community members’ submissions about the council’s DA process which are valid reasons when considering a DA.
It would seem the council’s major issue was to spend the bushfire grant money rather than listen to the opinions of residents who had genuine concerns about the process that the council had undertaken to determine and approve this project.
While I have some sympathy for councillors making decisions like this, the total lack of meaningful consultation and non-response to concerned submitters only makes it more indefensible.
Alongside the secrecy and the urgency to spend the available grant funds, the council’s own DA was lodged with a total value of $4.9million (under the $5million cap for a regionally significant development) while having $6.64million in the the council’s own budget papers.
If the council’s budget is correct, this project should have been assessed and decided by a planning panel with added opportunities for community members to comment on the proposal whether in favour or otherwise.
I would like to see both the Youth Centre remain and the Rec Centre built in line with previous agreed community consultations. But Council has made this decision and seems unwilling to change or explain its actions or reasoning which I feel is dismissive of the community it was elected to serve.
I would like the council to call a community meeting and explain the following: why didn’t it feel it necessary to go back to the wider community after they had changed the scope of works in December 2024; why the Rec Centre had to be built on the Memorial Park site; why they are demolishing the Youth Centre; and why does it need a $6.64 million budget for a $4.9 million project.
John Watkins,
Collins Creek
NOTE: John was a board member at Kyogle Together for a few years, some years back. He also worked for Kyogle Council as Director of Corporate Services for a short period.
Editor’s note: This letter has been edited with two sentences taken out for legal reasons. As a publication, we have a responsibility for public debate that gives a voice to our readers without being defamatory. Strong opinions matter in a democracy. Opinions on people’s actions is tricky, especially when there is no right of reply (as in a letter). The debate must always remain on entities (ie council) and not on individuals – The Indy is not Facebook. We encourage lively debate on our letters page and aim to be fair and truthful in our stories.